The Backspace — Restaurant in Austin

We've been here three times now and the first two visits were great. This last visit was very disappointing and made this place feel a whole lot less special. Our server seemed to not know what was going on in such a small establishment. Ordered a glass of wine, "sorry we're out of that." Ordered a different wine...she comes back a few minutes later, "We're out of that too." At this point, I asked her what they do have and said ok to the first thing she said they have. Ordered antipasti, she disappeared for an extended duration. I wanted to add to the order but she was nowhere to be found for some time, so I went to find someone else to help, which they did. Later on, she returned to take the order for the table. We ordered and requested only one modification to remove the peppers from one of the pizzas. She said no problem and went about submitting the order to the kitchen. When the pizzas were ready to come to the table, she approached to say she forgot to have the peppers removed from the order and asked me if it would be ok for them to "take the peppers off" before bringing the order to the table. Yes, she said they'd pick the peppers off my order before recognizing the look on my face and then she pivoted to "or we can remake it if you want." At this point, I wasn't interested in waiting for my pizza to be remade while my family enjoyed their orders, so I agreed to take the pizza as it was even though Bell peppers cause a reaction that I don't need to post about here. I took them off and enjoyed as best as I could. I assume she could recognize that I was slightly annoyed by the multiple let downs, so she tendered an offer for a complimentary dessert but didn't offer a menu or return to the table with a dessert menu, so I suppose I was expected to guess what was available. In the end, I didn't take her up on the offer for the dessert and just wanted to leave as the experience was a let down compared to previous visits. It's frustrating that they added 20% gratuity to the order as I do not believe the server earned the tip. Frankly, I have had better service at McDonald's. It's disappointing to say, but it's unlikely I'll return to The Backspace. Today's experience hit the backspace on my excitement for the...

Rustic ambiance, close-knit dining, the smell of pizza in the air - these were some of my first impressions upon walking into The Backspace. Food preparations inspired by authentic Italian cooking, you’ll find everything on the menu to be made by scratch.

For pizzas I got: Fennel Sausage: which comes with mozzarella cheese, tomato, roasted pepper, and garlic. What I like most here is the strong fennel taste that comes out of the sausage, hard to describe, but it’s kinda like an onion flavor. I really like it. Their off-menu, Leek & Prosciutto: which came with fontina and ricotta cheese, onion marmalade (jam, essentially), shallots, garlic, lemon zest, and chili oil drizzle. Given it’s a white base, it was much lighter. Hints of sweet notes from the chili oil, shallots, and chili oil elevate the savory notes of the cheese and garlic which make for a unique-tasting pizza. Additionally, what I like most about their pizzas is their consistency: soft enough to chew easily and crunchy enough where it was fun to continue to eat it. Slightly charred crust, just how I like it. I always like to get a tomato based pizza and white based pizza as they contrast very well together.

Now let’s go back and talk about the antipasti that I started with before I got pizza: Burrata: comes with sweet peppers, charred tomato, and cucumber. Refreshing way to start off your meal. Baked Ricotta: comes with cherry tomatoes, roasted eggplant, oregano, and focaccia bread to dip. This one is heavier and creamier. For the cheese lover! What I noticed about both is the cheese flavors aren’t overpowering which balances them out amongst the ingredients they come with. Two types of ways to start off your meal - which do you pick?

Now going to dessert: I finished off my meal with their: Chocolate Hazelnut Budino: you’re essentially taking a higher quality, creamier chocolate pudding and mixing it with whipped cream and topping it off with hazelnut toffee. Rich chocolate flavors, but not overkill - enough to leave you satisfied.

All in all, I was satisfied with my visit here. Balanced flavors, good amount of variety to choose from, decently priced - I suggest y’all come...

Was in town and Found this place by chance and had a little date night. The pizza was nothing short of delicious: the potato pizza was to die for and wine was fantastic and our server was amazing. It is a smaller place so there isn’t much room on the table or in the restaurant it self and the blonde girl who I assumed was the manager since she was at the front, was squeezing people into the bar which put their back very close to our table which was a down side since the waitress had to keep squeezing by and said sorry each time so it was no big deal you can tell it was out of her hands but I think maybe the seating could be taken into consideration, and I also assumed they would space out our appetizers, salads and entrees and since it was date night we wanted to eat and enjoy our meal but I felt a little rushed to finish everything since there was no room on the table and everything was brought so close together. Our waitress was awesome and she kept up with everything very well and the other girl who I assumed was the manager kept coming up to us after we already told the other girl we were thinking still or told our waitress already what we wanted and she kept pushing us to order even thought we already discussed with our waitress. So even though the food is quite delicious and worth it, I feel as if they should take a step back and let people enjoy their meal especially when someone is trying to have date night. The place is super small and so I assume they were trying to get their table back but it was a rushed experience so that was the only down side. We didn’t even finish our meal before the other girl ( not our waitress ) was coming up to us giving us the check so it was a little weird. But again the food is absolutely delicious and would def try them again when it town. It was a busier time of the night so I recommend reservations for sure since the...